Google has now introduced support for Netflix to its home assistant Google Home, which now enables users to control the streaming app without opening it on a computer.

Google Home users could only cast YouTube videos to their Chromecast devices until now. However, with the integration, users can now cast Netflix and browse through their Google Photos as well.

Google Home

How To Start

To get started you’ll need the latest version of the Google Home app, and a Chromecast plugged into the TV. In the Home app go to Devices > Home > Settings > More > Videos and Photos and link your Netflix account to your Google one. After that is done, just say ‘OK Google, Watch Stranger Things [or insert show of your choice here] on Netflix’ to get started.

And as well as Netflix support, Google Home now works with Google Photos too. Again, you will need a Chromecast and to link your accounts in the Home app, but with that done you will be able to throw any of your saved images up on to the big screen. You can use voice commands to the filter down the photos you’re looking at to any category that Photos supports, such as places (‘Ok Google, show photos from Paris on my TV’) and people (‘Show photos of me on my TV’).

Google Home is an entirely new platform for the company and its developers, and the quicker it can gain some killer features and app support, the better off users will be. But it isn’t just about early adopters. This home-based digital assistant is the wave of the future, and Google clearly has an eye on Amazon and Alexa as it works to expand the capabilities of Google Home as quickly as possible.

Last week, Google announced it was opening its Actions on Google platform, enabling developers to tap directly into the digital assistant to bring voice commands for things like food ordering, shopping, and news, as well as enabling two-way conversations with the device. So we’d expect a lot more of these types of useful interactions making their way to Google Home in the coming months.